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financial mistakes?
Reading the debt/credit card posts below, it's got me wondering - what's your biggest financial mistake been? Credit card debt? Bad investment? Just living above your means?
I'll go first. Back when I was in my early 20s and still with my psycho ex, I had two credit cards - one with an $8k limit, one with a $12k limit. I had added his name to the accounts (dumbdumbdumbdumbdumb! but we'd been together for a couple years and by that stage I trusted him). He traveled a lot for work and was often gone for 2 weeks at a time. He made a decent living, so when he started coming home with all this stuff (new clothes, electronics, had expensive dinners when he was traveling, etc.) I didn't really think about it and just assumed he was buying everything with his money. Nope. It was ALL going on my credit cards.
I didn't see this right away because about a month after I'd added him to my cards, we went on an overseas trip for 3 weeks (during which time he bought a ton of expensive souvenirs, which since I wasn't always standing right next to him when he bought them, I ALSO assumed was with his money), so I didn't realize what was going on until it had been happening for about 2 months. Now, I'm not going to claim he racked up all of the debt, because yes some of it was mine, but the huuuuuge majority was from him and at the end of that time, the $8k card was maxed out and $12k one was at about $10k. And it was all in my name.
The kicker? When we broke up, he had the audacity to tell me that I owed him $1500 for some things he'd paid for from his money on that overseas trip. You'd better believe I told him where he could stick that!
It took me YEARS to pay off that money, and having to tell Ben about how much cc debt I had when we combined our finances was a horrible experience - I felt awful being the one to drag debt into the relationship.
So there's my boneheaded mistake: giving access to my credit to someone who was incredibly irresponsible with credit.
Anyone else? (Or, if you've always been responsible with money, feel free to AW that - I totally respect it!)
Re: financial mistakes?
I opened my first credit card because I wanted the free CD case that I got for applying. Neat! What a stupid move - I didn't even have a job (I was in college) and I was shocked when I was approved. Didn't stop me from using it... I bought a dress, and the first bill had a payment due of $5. I thought "Wow, $5 a month, I'll barely even notice I'm paying for this!" Uggggh... if only I could go back and smack myself upside the head.
On top of that, since I didn't have a job all summer, I took cash advances from the card to pay my car payments. Didn't even bother to read the fine print and realize the interest on the cash was ridiculously high. I topped out the card's limit before I even knew what hit me, and the minimums barely covered the interest charges. WHY was I so STUPID?!
At least I messed up early, and the card had a low limit. By the time I was old enough to be offered a decent spending limit, I knew to stay away from credit!
yikes - that is horrible, I can't believe he wanted YOU to pay him!!
I too hate credit cards but haven't ever really went crazy with them. I found out about 3 weeks before I was going to study abroad that financial aid (student loans) didn't cover the whole thing so I had to put some of that on a credit card that I had to pay off for 3 years (just finished it up last summer). I was sick about how much interest I had to pay on it.
The rest of my financial woes are tied to education - so it's not that bad but I do get a little sad every month when I have to write out those checks.
I had a full tuition scholarship for law school but it didn't cover living expenses or books/supplies and I really wasn't able to work enough to cover that stuff so I had to take out loans, also my parents only paid for tuition, books, and some living expenses during undergrad so I had minimal loans that carried over from that as well.
I didn't like being away from my home state during law school so I vowed to graduate early so I had to take summer school (meaning I couldn't get a job over the summers) AND I had to pay for those classes on my own (summer abroad was quite a bit more than regular law school, but it was a great experience). Like I said, I don't really regret this debt, but it's annoying to pay it every month - I could be driving an awesome car, saving a ton for vacations, or any number of fun things. I will be done with it in 7 years!! That will be a wonderful day.
Luckily DH has no debt - CC, student loans or otherwise. Lucky guy!
Lisa: I was in a similar situation with my psycho ex
I put him on my credit card (one 5k, other 20k), and during the course of our 6 year relationship he ran those things into the ground. Yes I did use it from time to time but I was the only one paying the dam things! That's just a window into the nightmare that was my life. I thank God everyday for kicking that fool to the curb!
I had to break down my financial past to Ryan as well. He's one of those 'only use cc in emergency situations' kinda guys, which offsets me quite nicely. If it wasn't for him, I'd probably use mine more often. We basically only use the cc to rack up airline miles, but pay the balance as we go.
My biggest financial mistake was going to an out-of-state State University for my first year of undergrad. I paid $25K for that year, mainly with school loans (although I did have work-study, two grants and a scholarship too). After that year I transferred to an in-state school that was like $5K/year. I also did my graduate studies at that school. I finished my college education with $20K in school loans, $17K of which was from that first year at the out-of-state school
D'oh! Expensive learning curve on that way. To this day I don't know how I, at 17, was allowed to make that decision. I was told "money is not the reason to attend the college of your choice...just take a loan." I wish I had been counseled differently. I am almost done paying off that school loan, but really...had I not gone to that school I would have finished my degree one year earlier (the credits didn't transfer straight over since I went from a quarter system to a semester syster) and probably debt free.
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I opened my first CC becuase they gave me a free rainbow-colored slinky in college. How stupid was I?
I still have about $10K I'm trying to pay off, little by little. Yuck!
I also foolishly chose to go to a private college entirely on loans. I' hoping to pay that off before my child goes to college.
That's so funny you guys put your boyfriends on your credit cards... I am the opposite - I'm freaked out at putting my husband on mine! He has his own, which I'm paying off now.
I had a teaching job which allowed me to get pretty much whatever I wanted between undergrad and grad school.... then I went to grad school on a scholarship, but it didn't cover room and board, etc... so I took out loans for that, but I still racked up about 7k on the credit cards in 2 years. So, I started paying those off and had them paid off before we got married. Then it was just the usual student loans.
Then the housing market started going up. I really wanted to buy something. Since the prices were escalating, I rushed into getting something that's now barely worth half what I paid for it. And since it was so expensive, I took out an interest only adjustable rate mortgage for 100% of the price. Now, I have the money to pay for it, and actually the adjustable rate thing has worked in my favor since the rates are so low right now and everything I paid over the minimum goes to principal. Since the rate is going down, I'm going to keep the same payments I've been doing, so much more will be going to principal, and I'm very happy with that!
However, had we rented and waited to buy something, say now, we could have had a much bigger place in a better neighborhood.
During college I was pretty good with my cards paying them off and not charging to much, but that all changed when I married my ex. We had a degree in finance but sucked with money. It all started with new cars and then new toys and then we got got hurt on one of those toys aka a dirt bike. He went on to lose his job and we ended up with lots of medical bills. We had so many payments that we could not afford them on mt salary and he insisted he would get better and did not want to get rid of anything. So we started paying things with cc and it was down hill from there. After almost 2 yrs of this we were to the point of filing bankruptcy. His parents were nice enough to help us sale all those stupid toys and help get a loan to settle with the cc companies. But he still spend every thing extra I would bring home...he didn't want our friends to know we had financial trouble so he tried to live above his means. But the good thing is by the time we separated we were down to only 1 vehicle and didn't owe that much anymore. But I am still affected by all that still on my credit report:( Now me and Mark started with a personal loan each...I had to get one to pay for my divorse. We combined those but then when we had to do IVF we had to take out another personal loan to cover that so right now the personal loans are eating us alive:( I did pay off the last 1K on our credit card with our refund:)
Sorry that ended up being long
I've been pretty good with my money, always paid my cc balances in full, and maintained excellent credit. Unfortunately, it seems to not matter since hubby has not, and I can't qualify for a house in Hawaii on my own.
When he was younger, he let his ex use his credit cards. She ran up the bills, and when they broke up, he was stubborn and refused to pay it. The situation put such a bad taste in his mouth about credit cards that he's stayed away from them, so the only credit history he has is his bad history. It's coming back to bite him (and me) in the butt since we're trying to buy a house now, but his credit score makes the interest rate sky rocket!
A lot of hubby's decisions stemmed from the fact that no one had ever taught him about how to manage his money or about credit scores and why it is important. I firmly believe this is something they should teach in school. My HS had a money management class, and it is one of the best classes I have ever taken. We had to pay "rent" each week, due Monday at the beginning of class, invest in the stock market, fill out tax forms, etc...
this sounds like a really great idea to me. I wish more schools offered it!
In my case, I'd been with him for several years, we lived together, etc....I guess I just trusted him more than I should have, and was young and stupid. It absolutely never occurred to me that he'd be so flagrantly irresponsible, and it definitely burned me for a long time - Ben and I were together (and engaged) for a while before I was comfortable with sharing credit with him, and even then I was super nervous when we first did it.
I agree that this would be fantastic! I come from a family that is very - VERY - irresponsible with money. They're all intelligent people, but none of them have a clue how to manage their money, so I faced a steep learning curve since I never had an example for me (not trying to pass blame or anything, but I think it's true that you learn a lot about money management from your parents). It's probably a big part of the reason that I'm such a tightwad today - I've seen my family members blow through so much money so irresponsibly that I get all neurotic about it. Sometimes Ben has to tell me that it's OK to spend money and enjoy it, too!